Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce

An open access Internet journal (http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jibc/)

Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, August 2012, vol. 17, no.2
(http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jibc/)

A Comparative Study of online P2P Lending in the USA and

China
Dongyu Chen
Associate Professor, School of Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China
Postal Address: School of Management, New College District, No.2 Xueyuan RD,
Fuzhou, China
Author's Personal Website: http://glxy.fzu.edu.cn/collegeabout.asp
Email: chendy_t@swufe.edu.cn
Dr. Dongyu Chen is associate professor of management information system at School of
Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou China. Dr. Chens research areas focus on
management information systems and e-commerce. Dr. Chen has published in Journal
of Global Information Technology Management and Construction Engineering and
Management.
Chaodong Han *
Assistant Professor, Department of E-Business and Technology Management,
College of Business and Economics, Towson University
Postal Address: Department of EBTM, Stephens Hall 316P, 8000 York Road,
Towson, MD 21252
Author's Personal/Organizational Website: http://pages.towson.edu/chan
Email: chan@towson.edu
Dr. Han is assistant professor of E-Business and Technology Management at Towson
University. Dr. Han received his Ph.D. in logistics and supply chain management from
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Han's
research has focused on globalization, IT in supply chain management, and
manufacturing industries. His research has been published in Production and Operations
Management Journal, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of
Computer Information Systems, International Journal of Physical Distribution and
Logistics Management and Transportation Journal.

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* Corresponding author

This study was funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peoples Republic for the
research project - Behavioral Study of Online Peer-to-Peer Lending (Project No.
10YJCZH007).

Abstract
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending provides online users an innovative loaning and investment
vehicle without the intermediation of financial institutions. However, the research on
online P2P lending is still scarce. In this study we review relevant literature and conduct
a comparative study of online P2P lending practices in the USA and China. We find that
two categories of credit information, hard and soft information, may have profound
influences on lending outcomes in both countries, but lenders in China is more reliable
on soft information. This study provides valuable insights for future research and
practices and enriches the understanding of online P2P lending across countries.
Keywords: Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending; Information Asymmetry; Social Lending;
Social Network
Dongyu Chen and Chaodong Han, 2012

INTRODUCTION
The advancement of information technology (IT) has resulted in a rapid growth of
electronic markets (Malone et al., 1987). One of the most impressive features of
electronic markets is its enabling role of eliminating or reducing the reliance on
traditional middlemen, who connect the product/service providers and the end customers
(Patsuris, 1998). This is particularly the case with online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, a
novel financing model for the Internet users.
P2P lending refers to unsecured loans between lenders and borrowers through online
platforms without the intermediation of any financial institutions ( Lin et al., 2009; Collier
& Hampshire, 2010; Bachmann et al., 2011). As a revolutionary application of
information technology and Web 2.0 in financial fields (Iyer et al., 2009; Lin et al., 2012),
P2P lending is able to effectively facilitate information posting and searching and
provides all functions necessary to complete transactions (Brown, 2008; Herzenstein et
al., 2008).
Advantages of this innovative lending model include: (1) borrowers and lenders can
easily post and search for information and complete transactions on the online platforms
with lower transaction costs (Lin, 2009; Lin et al., 2009; Lin et al., 2012); (2) Low
transaction costs make very small loans (i.e., microloans) feasible; (3) Multiple
microloans may be pooled together to fund projects which require a large fund while
reducing the risks of lending; and (4) Through online authentication and information
search on social networks, lenders may be able to gather more information about
borrowers credit history and mitigate information asymmetry between borrowers and

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lenders, contributing to the reduction of lending risks and to the expansion of lending
practices beyond the traditional circle of acquaintances.
Online P2P lending has primarily targeted small and micro loans, which not only fund
small businesses but also provide short-term liquidity (Johnson et al., 2010; Wang et al.,
2009). Even though the P2P lending platform plays the role of a financial institution in
connecting borrowers and lenders, it makes profits from commissions instead of the
spread between deposit and loan (Lin, 2009). As an effective and sustainable lending
approach, online P2P lending has received increasing attention from both academia and
practitioners (Brown, 2008; Galloway, 2009; Lin, 2009; Bachmann et al., 2011).
Since 2005, online P2P lending has experienced a rapid growth across a number of
countries, including United States, Canada, UK, Japan, Italy and China, with slightly
different forms. Some online P2P lending platforms are for charity purposes, aiming to
collect and provide money for people in poverty, while others are for commercial
purposes, intending to facilitate lending process between borrowers and lenders.
Among the most successful online platforms are British Zopa, U.S. Prosper and Kiva.
For example, funded in 2006, Prosper had made $170 million in loans by 2009 (Lin et
al., 2012). A non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, Kiva
reports that the total value of all loans made through its platform has reached $205
million as of April 2011 (Kiva, 2011).
Despite a late development, online P2P lending has had considerable growth in China.
Among the well-known Chinese online P2P lending platforms are Ppdai.com [ ],
My089.net [], Qifang.com, and CreditEasy.com. For example, the first Chinese
online P2P platform established in 2007, Ppdai.com has had nearly 80,000 registered
users within one and half years. My089.net is another large lending website in China,
with a registered capital of 50 million RMB. Within three years, CreditEasy.com has
developed its networks in Beijing and other fifteen cities and absorbed nearly $100
million from thousands of private investors, transforming into a nationwide P2P lending
platform.
Despite its fast growth, the P2P lending markets are still at an infant stage. In fact, only
a few online platforms are able to achieve operational efficiency to survive and thrive in
the fierce competition (Lin, 2009). Even for Prosper.com, fewer than 10% of the
borrowers are able to successfully obtain funds as requested, while many lenders are
ironically not able to find potential borrowers.
It is argued that information asymmetry and distrust brought by borrowers opportunistic
behaviors may cause inefficiency of matching lenders and borrowers. As a result, most
borrowers have been able to request funds only once and have to quit P2P lending
platforms (Collier & Hampshire, 2010). Research shows that not only technical factors
but also psychological factors could affect the behaviors of borrowers and lenders.
Therefore, an examination of lending and borrowing behaviors and identifying
antecedents of successful P2P loans is meaningful for the healthy development of online
P2P lending markets.

In order to promote the healthy development of online P2P lending market, both

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practitioners and researchers need to address the following questions: (1) What are the
critical success factors for online P2P lending? (2) What are the determinants of using or
giving up the online P2P lending? (3) What are the specific considerations when lenders
do not honor certain requests from the borrowers? (4) What may contribute to a bad loan
and hence negatively affect the credit of the borrowers? (5) How do we evaluate the risk
of lending based on credit information provided by social networks?
However, these questions have received inadequate examination. To address those
issues, we examine relevant studies on online P2P lending practices in two largest
economies in the world: USA and China. Both countries experience fast growth of online
lending, but the former represents developed countries, while the latter represents
developing countries. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: We first
describe the research methodology, then present our findings, and conclude with
discussions and directions for future research.

METHODOLOGY
We reviewed academic papers and research reports of online P2P lending published
between January 2005 and November 2010. The papers and reports were retrieved
from databases of EBSCO (BSP, ASP) database, Journal Storage, Springer Link
database, ABI Complete database, Science Direct database, and Google Scholars, by
searching and visual inspection of published abstracts with a combination of keywords.
The keywords we used included micro-lending, microloan, P2P lending, peer-topeer lending, people-to-people lending, person-to-person lending, online lending,
social lending, network loan, and P2P loan. Following the guidelines provided by
Robey et al. (2008), we also examined abstracts of articles whose titles may imply P2P
lending. The searching yielded 31 articles, 19 of which are working papers, eight are
conference papers, and four are journal articles. Two authors reviewed all the 31
articles independently and coded them into different categories. Following Robey et al.
(2008), one author provided the initial coding, which was then reviewed by another
author. Agreement on the findings of literature review was obtained after several rounds
of discussions. We further compare online P2P lending practices in both USA and China
based on limited data available from public sources.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
In the traditional lending context, financial institutions, such as commercial banks, take
the role of a transaction intermediary. These banks take deposits at lower interest rates,
and then make loans to customers at higher rates. As banks have sophisticated riskassessment instruments and more information of borrowers, they are able to mitigate
information asymmetry more effectively during the lending process. In contrast, in the
online P2P lending settings, it is difficult for lenders to obtain comprehensive information
about borrowers, resulting in a severe hazard of information asymmetry (Lin et al.,
2009). Therefore, most studies on online P2P lending focus on the mitigation of
information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders in the lending process for the
purpose of risk reduction, including: (1) the operation mode of online P2P lending; (2)
impacts of hard credit information, such as personal information, on lending outcomes;
and (3) impacts of soft credit information on lending outcomes.

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Operation Mode of Online P2P Lending

Calculation of Credit Score
Lenders are hardly able to get the overall information of borrowers. Therefore, how to
mitigate information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders are critical to its
success. Most lending websites have adopted a variety of methods to evaluate a
borrowers creditworthiness. For the Prosper.com in the USA, the credit ratings of
borrowers are directly extracted from the third party Fair, Isaac Credit Organization
(FICO) according to the borrowers social security number. However, theres no such
agency in China, the credit scores of borrowers are mainly calculated from the
information submitted by the borrowers themselves. For Ppdai.com in China, available
information is limited to borrowers age, occupation, gender, marriage status, and any
financial information provided by banks and other financial institutions. The credit rating
system in My089.net [] is even more complex. My089.net links its credit
collection and reporting system with taobao.com [ ], the largest B2C website in
Chin and equivalent to Amazon.com in USA. Credit ratings of potential borrowers are
calculated based on their credit ratings at taobao.com.
Transaction Fees
In general, there are no fees for posting a borrower listing. Fees are only charged if a
loan is funded and money is transferred from lenders to borrowers. But there are still
some differences in different lending websites. For the Prosper.com in the USA, the
transaction fees include three components: closing fee, fines on failed payments, and
late payment fee. The closing fee is a percentage of the amount borrowed and varies by
Prosper Rating. The higher rating a borrower is, the lower closing fee she has to pay. In
addition, a failed automated withdrawal, returned checks or bank drafts will result in a
fee of 15 USD. If a monthly payment is 15 days late, the borrower has to pay a late fee
to investors. In contrast, the transaction fee in China is much higher. For instance,
transaction fees in Ppdai.com include four components: service fee, recharging fee,
cashing fee, and late payment fee. Service fees are charged for all funded loans. The
longer repayment period that a loan lasts, the higher fees the borrower has to pay.
Recharging fees are paid by borrowers and lenders for charging money to their
accounts, while cashing fees are paid by both borrowers and lenders for withdrawing
cash from their accounts. The late payment fee is 50 RMB per payment plus 0.06% of
the late payment amount per day. If the payment is late within 60 days, the fees are
charged by the lending website, or else the fees will be transferred to investors to
compensate for their losses. My089.net [] in China charges even more. In
addition to the above fees, it also charges VIP membership fees of 120 RMB per year.
Functions of Social Networking
Nearly all lending websites have provided the functions of social networking services.
For Prosper.com, any members who signs up and has a verified email account can
create or join a social network. There are two major types of social networks: friendship
network and groups (Lin et al., 2012). In a friendship network, a member can be friends
with other verified members. Any member at Prosper.com can also create a group and
can join in any group if she can meet its membership criteria. However, an individual can
only be a member of only one group at a time. The situation is slightly different in China.
Ppdai.com provides two types of social networks: friendship network and discussion
forum. The friendship network is quite the same as that in the Prosper.com, but the

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discussion forum is more like a bulletin board, where any members can post comments
and reply to other members comments. The lending platform of My089.net []
only provides discussion forums on its website.
In summary, there are significant differences of functions and operation modes of online
P2P lending between USA and China. The loan default rate in Prosper.com in the USA
ranges from 1% to 2%, while it ranges from 2%-3% for the Ppdai.com in China,
indicating that a developed financial ecosystem, such as independent third-party credit
evaluation institutions, is critical to the reduction of default rates in online P2P lending. A
comparison of online P2P lending websites is shown in Table 1.
Table 1

Comparison of Online P2P Lending in USA and China

Social
Network

Growth

Risk
Control

high

medium

fast

high

low

weak

medium

low

2%-3%

weak

medium

medium

Unknown

Transaction Credit
Fee
Rating
Prosper
(USA)

middle

Ppdai (China)
medium
()

My089
(China)
high
medium
(
(Source: compiled by authors)

Default
Rate
1%-2%

Impacts of Hard Credit Information on Lending Outcomes

Hard credit information refers to the credit information that can be accurately
quantified, easily stored and efficiently transmitted. In the P2P lending context, hard
credit information includes the credit profile of borrowers, such as a borrower's debtincome ratio, credit ratings, the number of credit inquiries made in the past, and the
number of credit cards the borrower holds (Lin, 2009; Lin et al., 2009; Lin et al., 2012).
In a typical online transaction, such as purchases at eBay.com, a buyer cannot easily
obtain detailed information about the seller and hence has to judge the trustworthiness
of the seller through some observable behaviors or signals (Bacharach & Gambetti,
2001).
Similarly, in the P2P lending setting, since lenders cannot obtain detailed information
about the borrowers, lenders have to depend on the signals available to them to judge
the creditworthiness of borrowers and make lending decisions accordingly. Studies
have revealed that two features of signals are playing a vital role in the decision making
of lending: the cost of obtaining signals and the difficulty in assessing signals (Collier &
Hampshire, 2010; Spence, 1973). In P2P lending, borrowers personal information and
information in loan listings are considered important signals by lenders to evaluate
borrowers trustworthiness, assess borrowers default risk, and set interest rates (Collier
& Hampshire, 2010; Lin, 2009).

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Borrowers Credit Rating

Through analyzing data collected from Prosper.com, Lin (2009) discovered that
borrowing requests with lower credit ratings are less likely to be funded and more likely
to default and end with higher interest rates. More interestingly, Lin et al. (2012) found
that bank card utilization has a curve linear effect on lending outcomes: while bank card
utilization at low and medium levels signals the creditworthiness of borrowers, very high
utilization of bank cards leads to decreased funding probability and increased interest
rates due to the risk of high leverages and vulnerability to shocks.
Further research (Iyer et al., 2009) found that borrower's default rate, debt-income ratio,
and the number of loan requests in the last six months have had a salient negative effect
on a lenders decision.
Although there are no conclusive findings concerning the impact of credit rating on
lending outcome for online P2P lending websites in China, Chen (2012) reported that
credit rating in Ppdai.com in China is influential in determining funding probability, but
less of a determinant for interest rates. However, default rate is much lower for
borrowers with higher credit levels.
Information of Loan Listings
Research has shown that the success rate of a loan is negatively correlated with the
interest rate. In practices, borrowers have to trade off between these two factors.
Moreover, the size of loan is associated with lower success rate and higher interest rate;
therefore, it is possible for borrowers to increase the success rate of a loan by paying
higher interest rates and/or reducing the loan size (Collier & Hampshire, 2010). A loan
request may be listed in a closed format, where the auction closes as soon as the total
bid reaches the amount desired by the borrower at the borrowers asking rate, or in an
open format, where lenders can continue to bid down the interest rate even if the
requested amount is fully funded within a specified time window.
Research suggests that the auction format influences lender's judgment: loans with
closed auction format may have a greater chance to be successfully funded, but with
higher interest rates. However, no significant differences in the default rates are noted
between loans with open and closed formats (Lin et al., 2012; Puro et al., 2010). In
addition, the purpose of a loan carries some influences on a lender's decision: the
success rate is lower and the interest rate higher for commercial loans than for debt
consolidation loans (Wang et al., 2009). Collier and Hampshire (2010) found that loan
size, borrower's financial situation (i.e., debt-income ratio) and auction format have
impacts on interest rates.
Studies have also revealed that lenders would use some subjective, non-standardized
information to derive the borrower's credit ratings. For instance, the highest interest rate
that the borrowers are willing to pay is a valuable, positive signal for potential lenders
(Iyer et al., 2009). For the lending websites in China, information asymmetry is found to
moderate the impact of social capital on trust, which is critical to willingness to lend
(Chen et al., 2012).

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Demographic Information
Studies indicate that the borrowers demographic information, such as gender, age, and
race, may have great impacts on the lenders willingness to lend (Ashta & Assadi,
2009a; Berger & Gleisner, 2007; Kumar, 2007). For instance, Barasinska (2009) found
that the gender of lenders will affect their lending decisions: male lenders are more likely
to choose risky borrowers than female lenders are. For the lenders in China, it is
reported that the higher income a lender has, the more likely she will lend (Ding et al.,
2010).
In summary, research in this area remains limited. Since current empirical research has
primarily used secondary data collected from Prosper.com (e.g., Lin et al., 2009), it is
rather difficult to generalize their findings to other settings. Different lending platforms
may adopt different "hard credit information", and the impact of hard credit information
on the lending outcomes needs to be further examined in other contexts.
Impacts of Soft Credit Information on Lending Outcomes
In contrast with hard credit information, such as credit scores or the financial conditions
of the borrowers, "soft credit information" refers to information that is fuzzy and hard-toquantify about borrowers. In P2P lending, soft credit information may be obtained from
social networks of borrowers (Collier & Hampshire, 2010; Iyer et al., 2009; Katherine &
Sergio, 2009; Lopez, 2009). Online P2P lending platforms not only disclose a borrower's
personal and loan information, but also provide information about a borrowers social
networks. Using Web 2.0 technology, lenders involving in P2P lending can easily
retrieve soft credit information from a borrowers social networks (Lin, 2009). Microfinance theory suggests that social networks can help reduce information asymmetry in
the lending process, and hence motivate borrowers to pay back loans (Katherine &
Sergio, 2009). The role of social networks also applies to the online P2P lending context
(Lin et al., 2012).
Information Asymmetry
The relational dimension of social networks can reduce information asymmetry in the
transaction process. Using data collected from Prosper.com, Lin et al. (2009a; 2009b;
2012) studied how social networks play roles in improving the loan success rate and
lowering interest rate and found that social networks can effectively reduce information
asymmetry in the transaction process. Online social networks are also found to have
played an important role in reducing information asymmetry and improving credit ratings
(Everett, 2008; Wei et al., 2010). Research has further suggested that becoming a
member of a trusted group can improve the success rate of a loan and also help people
with low credit scores to get their loans funded at affordable interest rates (Lopez, 2009;
Lopez et al., 2009). With the help of information technology, social networks could send
out valuable signals to lenders; but the effectiveness of the signals depends on their
reliability and verifiability (Katherine & Sergio, 2009).
Success Rate and Interest Rate
Social capital generally refers to the resources and connections associated with a social
network. An individuals social capital can be assessed from her social network,
including friends and colleagues (Burt, 1992), memberships or group affiliations in social
networks (Portes, 1998). In P2P lending, social capital as a source of soft credit
information may affect the success rate and interest rate of a loan. Greiner and Wang

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(2009) found that the more social capital borrowers have, the greater chances their
loans can be funded, and the lower interest rates they have to pay. When a borrower's
credit score is low, lenders need more information to further assess the borrower's
creditworthiness in order to reduce the lending risk. In this case, lenders depend on the
borrower's social networks to obtain information for lending decision. Collier and
Hampshire (2010) studied the impacts of social networks on lending behaviors based on
signal theory, and found that by communicating frequently with the other members,
involving proactively in transactions, and vouching frequently for others lending, the
borrowers could send strong signals to the lenders about borrowing trustworthiness. Lin
et al. (2012) found that social capital produces an informational externality, which can
be utilized to facilitate online transactions, leading to reduced interest rates on funded
loans. The publications concerning online P2P lending in Chinese context is limited.
Chen et al. (2012) found that both structural and relational social capitals are influential
on lending trust, and such relationship is stronger when perception of information
asymmetry is stronger.
While the creation of a self-organized group may help the online P2P lending
marketplace operate efficiently, empirical studies have revealed mixed findings: allowing
the group leaders to reward in securitization (e.g., a fee for successful listing) is
detrimental (Hildebrand et al., 2010). Freedman and Jin (2008) found that return on
investment of group loans was significantly lower than non-group loans. When a loan
requires "endorsement" by friends, the loan default rates would be relatively low, but
interest rates may increase.
Default Rate
With regard to the impact of social capital on loan defaults, research has also presented
a mixed picture (Karlan, 2007; Katherine & Sergio, 2009; Ortega & Bell, 2008). While
the total number of friends was found to be insignificant as a predictor of default, Lin
(2009) estimated that friends in a borrowers social network with verified identities as
lenders decreased the odds of default by 9% on average. The odds of default were
further lowered if the borrower's friends join in bidding; this was particularly the case
when a friend bid successfully, resulting in peer pressure for a borrower to repay the
loan when friends take stakes in a borrowers listing. Berger and Gleisner (2007; 2009)
provided further support for the effect of social capital on default rate based on group
membership. From the perspective of information asymmetry, Berger explained that
group leaders may have more private information about the borrowers than general
lenders so that group leaders are more capable of selecting the right borrowers and
more powerful in forcing borrowers to repay loans. In fact, group leaders are actually
playing the role of a lending intermediary in the transaction process.
Some research, however, reports opposite results on the effects of social capital.
Greiner and Wang (2009) found that, although lenders would take into account in the
decision process the information of social capital, social capital had no significant effect
in reducing borrowers default rate since the reported explanatory power of social capital
was very weak (only 0.3%) in predicting default rate. In addition, by analyzing 6-month
secondary data on lenders, borrowers and loan repayments collected from Prosper.com,
Kumar (2007) showed that credit grade and account verification were associated with
lower probability of loan default while loan size was positively associated with default
rate.

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Interestingly, certain factors which affect interest rates and risk premiums, such as debt
to income ratio, home ownership and group leader endorsement, demonstrated no
significant effects on default rates.
In summary, there has been extensive research on the roles that social networks are
playing in facilitating the online P2P lending process. However, current studies are still
subject to several limitations: 1) current studies are mainly focusing on secondary data
obtained from Prosper.com without much knowledge about lending behaviors, which
may be better understood using other research methodologies, such as questionnaires,
structured surveys, in-depth interviews, and experiments; 2) Current studies are mainly
focusing on commercial platforms such as Prosper.com, without taking into
consideration many other successful online P2P lending platforms which adopt different
business models with various structures and working mechanisms; 3) Since social and
cultural environments vary with countries, social networks may play different roles in
different countries. It is wise to study different lending platforms in different social and
cultural contexts; 4) Current studies only take into account some easily quantifiable
information obtained from social networks, excluding a loans comments from other
users and the text description of a loan, which turn out to be important in understanding
the lending behaviors.
Other Related Research in P2P Lending
Research on Loan Interest Rate
Micro-loans made through social networks demand much higher interest rates than
those made by commercial banks due to relatively high transaction costs. Ashta and
Assadi (2009b) reported that while most of the online P2P lending sites act as
intermediaries in transactions, both lenders and borrowers rarely contact each other
directly. Therefore, it is not easy for a lender to find an appropriate loan listing. In fact,
only a few sites, such as Virgin Money and my089.com, allowed both sides to make
direct contacts (Galloway, 2009). Garman et al. (2008b) found that borrowers needed to
pay "search premiums" because lenders usually needed to search extensively before
making a final decision.
Research on Efficiency of Online P2P Lending Marketplace
Current studies are mainly focusing on whether lenders behave rationally by analyzing
secondary data from Prosper.com. In online P2P lending market, higher interest rates
may imply higher risk premiums, and hence lenders are still facing serious risk of
adverse selection (Garman et al., 2008a; Garman et al., 2008b). It seems that lenders
are not able to well comprehend all the signals sent by the social network, resulting in
wrong decisions in bidding loan listings. But this situation is changing as lenders
continue to learn and draw lessons from failures. However, Lopez et al. (2009) found
that only a few members benefited from the use of social networks, and most borrowers
did not utilize social networks to update their credit profiles. Berger and Gleisner (2007;
2009) concluded that lenders were not entirely rational, and their investment behavior
was something like "Herd Instinct." Further research also found that strategic herding
behavior existed in loan auctions (Herzenstein et al., 2011).
In summary, studies suggest that not all the lenders' behaviors are rational, and those
irrational behaviors result in increased transaction costs and decreased operational

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efficiency. Therefore, it's of utter significance to fully understand the borrower's

behaviors in order to improve the designs of online lending platforms.

DISCUSSIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

We find that although there are differences for operation modes of online P2P lending in
USA and China, both hard and soft credit information may have impacts on lending
outcomes in both countries. This study may enhance our understanding of online
lending marketplaces and provide directions for further research.
Online P2P lending is still at its infant stage, and academic research in this field is rather
limited since most of the literatures are in the form of working papers and conference
proceedings. Based on signal theory and social capital theory, current research has
examined lending behaviors from the perspective of information asymmetry, but been
limited to the analysis of secondary data obtained from Prospers.com. Therefore,
current research findings should be cautioned before generalized to other contexts. In
addition, since discrepancies exist in research findings, it is beneficial to study the
phenomena from different perspectives and across countries.
Given the limitations of the current research and the need to further our understanding of
online P2P lending, we have identified three promising directions in future research: (1)
comparison of business models across different lending platforms, (2) exploring critical
factors influencing users adoption of P2P lending platforms, and (3) investigating P2P
lenders' behaviors.
Business model comparisons
The success of a P2P lending platform largely depends on its creative business model.
In-depth examination of the business models of different online P2P lending platforms
not only helps us better understand the nature of online lending, but also provides
insights into the improvement of these platforms and the design of new business modes.
While this current research compares online P2P lending practices in USA and China,
future research benefits greatly from collecting data from other developed economies
and emerging markets.
Adoption studies
Users' acceptance and actual use of a lending website are critical for the success of a
lending website (Legris et al., 2003). Although there are a large number of theoretical
lenses explaining the adoption and diffusion of technologies (Chen et al., 2010;
Venkatesh et al., 2003) and customers intentions of online purchase of products (Harris
et al., 2005; Jones and Leonard, 2008; Kim et al., 2008), theories that are specifically
focusing on P2P lending are scarce. Due to different characteristics between online
product purchases and online P2P lending, the extant theories in the field of electronic
commerce cannot be simply applied to the P2P lending context. As online P2P lending
is still not widely accepted, exploring critical factors that influence the acceptance and
actual use of P2P lending websites are important for the development of P2P lending
theory and practice.

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Studies on lenders behaviors

Based on analysis of secondary data obtained from Prosper.com, current studies have
provided support that a borrower's hard and soft credit information, including credit
ratings, income, banking information, loan amount, and information of social networks,
may affect the success rate of getting funded, and interest rates and default rates of a
loan (Freedman and Jin, 2008; Lin, 2009; Puro et al., 2010). However, the influences of
critical factors on lenders behaviors and the final outcomes need to be further examined
using transaction and other behavioral data collected from different lending websites
employing different business models.

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